Pairing Cigars, Pipe Tobacco and Beer: Live Life on the Edge

Beer and cigars or pipe tobacco is as American as the Chevrolet, Basketball and watching Sunsets. It’s not as tough as you would thing to pair a good microbrew or off the shelf beer with a smoke. If you stick to our style guide below you’ll always be on the right side of the road, no pun intended.

How to Mix and Match the Beer Lifestyle with Good Stick

It’s common mistake to order a beer in your local brew pub and then take a pull on a cigar or cigarette. You are in trouble at the outset; a cigar is always going to destroy your palate’s (tongue and mouth) ability to taste anything with delicate tasting notes like a find craft brew. You can’t mix these two processes; leave the cigar in your pocket humidor until you get through most if not all of the brew.

Always pair that lighter brew with a milder cigar. Most experts will tell you the more gentle the beer is on your tastebuds the worse it will taste if its combined with a strong/robust cigar.

Try pairing a pale ale, a light Pilsner or just about any Belgian Beer you choice. Most of the latter will “fluff up” your palate a bit and work fine with a lighter cigar that’s not going to blow you into the weeds with a strong taste.

Go mild when you are out for a night on the town drinking beer. As we touched on above a milder cigar will always taste better with any kind of beer: think about a fine Arturo Fuente Double Chateau Sun Grown or if you want to be more risky with your taste experience an Alec Bradley Coyol Belicoso premium cigar which has a bit of a stronger taste.

Think digital when you are researching beers, cigars and good times (in any order). No, not Tinder or SnapChat we mean going all in and check out an app like Cigar Boss (linked for download); looks coo to us. But, while we are on the subject, jump on Instagram and check out our feed.

Take Care of Your Palate and it will take Care of You

Palate cleansers exist for a reason. You have just powered down a delicious Ceaser salad in your favorite Michelin Five Star Restaurant and they serve a palate cleanser to you know refresh those taste buds. Well, this technique works for cigars, pipe tobacco cigarettes and beer – a palate cleanser works by rinsing your taste buds so you can appreciate a different flavor. But, what works for one cigar smoker may not work for another.

Some use a glass of water to sip between puffs on the cigar and then sampling the brew, others will toss back anything with flavor that is casual to refresh the palate: nuts, crackers, bread, apple slices, etc.

The most important rule of all is a couple of rules. Some ladies like a dark Pilsner in the pub watching Manchester United score another great win and some like a lighter Beligan Brew, etc. – accordingly, it’s all about personal preferences, when/where you are (country of location right?) and really there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to smoking cigars and beer.

Whatever each of you enjoys should be your order of the day and follow your individual tastes and you won’t go wrong. There are no hard and fast rules: everything is subject to change in today’s ever-evolving tastes.